See, America, see how easy it is? I just looked outside, society did not crumble, there are not zombie armies marauding the streets looking for caches of prepper beans and rice. A simple plant and a simple incident that could save America.

The times are definitely a changing. At the bar last night the people outside smoking were about 50% smoking cigarettes and 50% smoking weed via pipes or joints. It's still surreal to see it done so casually and in the open without anyone giving a single fark.

It's gonna be amusing when the anti-tobacco trend washing over the country, resulting in banning smoking in public areas, bars, restaurants, etc, starts butting head with the nascent legal pot directives. I think it's all fascist crap, but then again, I don't like smoke, so I'm moderately quiet on the issue :)

That aside, I'll be amused when people are made aware that legality of it does not confirm a protected or minority status on it, and businesses are still free to discriminate based on drug usage of employees or applicants.

It's all about freedom after all. You should be free to live your life how you want, and other people should be free to judge you for how you do it.

quietwalker: " It's gonna be amusing when the anti-tobacco trend washing over the country, resulting in banning smoking in public areas, bars, restaurants, etc, starts butting head with the nascent legal pot directives."

What's to butt heads over? Nothing about smoking regulations is limited to tobacco. And nothing about pot exempts smoking it from qualifying as smoking.So you can't smoke pot where you can't smoke anything else. It's obvious enough. And there's no real reason for anyone to think that it would be otherwise.

GhettoWinter:I'm not familiar with the new law in Washington State. Do you need to be a resident of the state / have any sort of paper work to use the dispensaries?

/asking for a friend who's traveling there.

The best way for an everyday Joe to get pot here is still the same as it's always been: find someone who will sell it to you, and don't get caught. The police don't set up stings for people buying it any more at all.

The difference now is once you get past that point, you won't get in trouble for smoking it any more. There will eventually be legal ways for anyone to purchase it (similar to tobacco anyways), but they're not expected until the end of the year or so. After that happens, you should be able to legally buy pot in some tobacco stores and other shops.

Falin:GhettoWinter: I'm not familiar with the new law in Washington State. Do you need to be a resident of the state / have any sort of paper work to use the dispensaries?

/asking for a friend who's traveling there.

The best way for an everyday Joe to get pot here is still the same as it's always been: find someone who will sell it to you, and don't get caught. The police don't set up stings for people buying it any more at all.

The difference now is once you get past that point, you won't get in trouble for smoking it any more. There will eventually be legal ways for anyone to purchase it (similar to tobacco anyways), but they're not expected until the end of the year or so. After that happens, you should be able to legally buy pot in some tobacco stores and other shops.

Ah, thanks. Flying up there for sasquatch in may and last time it was surprisingly difficult to find someone willing to part with their stash. Was hoping for an easier solution.

All marijuana exclusive dealers were read and given a copy of the Admonishment letter.

So, this is supposed to stop them from selling any more weed? Betcha the part about them getting let go and getting the weed back, and the hard drug dealers kept in jail sinks in better about not dealing anything else but cannabis.

GhettoWinter:So, In CA you have to go to a "doctor" to get a "prescription" before you can head to the dispensary. Any idea what the process is in WA? Having trouble getting a straight answer out of google.

Here in CA up too one ounce is "decriminalized" for any adult, and there is virtually no enforcement action. Spend $150 for a doctor visit and you can have, grow and consume all you want, since our Supremes ruled the cops/DAs can't set arbitrary limits.

quietwalker:It's gonna be amusing when the anti-tobacco trend washing over the country, resulting in banning smoking in public areas, bars, restaurants, etc, starts butting head with the nascent legal pot directives.

There isn't much conflict. Banning pot smoking just like tobacco smoking makes perfect sense considering the primary reason smoking bans are popular is because cigarettes smell like shiat. Secondary smoke health hazards blah blah blah - seriously, if you're not a smoker or living with one those things smell like ass. And in the extreme case where there is a secondary smoke health hazard (servers in very smoky bars getting a lungful for 8 hours a day), it applies double to pot (stoned waiters and waitresses are likely to be a bit less productive than non-stoned). Similar to pot to most people, so it's natural and logical that they'll be treated the same.

nburghmatt:GhettoWinter: VTGremlin: GhettoWinter: I'm not familiar with the new law in Washington State. Do you need to be a resident of the state / have any sort of paper work to use the dispensaries?

it's the same. there aren't recreational dispensaries in WA yet.

I'm assuming that means you have to be a resident of the state as well then? What a bummer.

hermitage_deux:That's 6 prison beds that don' t need to be funded, and 6 public defenders that don't have new cases, and 6 trials that won't require juries.... they should really keep track of the $avings.

Yup. This is the same city that picked up the 75 worst chronic drunks, responsible for literally hundreds of emergency room visits each, and... gave them a free apartment. All together in the same place. No religious sermons, and - the real innovation - they are allowed to drink themselves to a stupor in their rooms. Get pass the Righties "OMG MORAL HAZARD!!1!!1" and it has saved millions of dollars net. And we're talking serious drunks here - shiat filled pants passed out in a puddle of their own vomit in a gutter 7 days a week, not just Fridays. If you're sober long enough to log into Fark, you're not even close to qualifying. Even with a patrol car parked outside 24/7 to keep the neighbors happy and an ambulance rolling through a few times a day to pick up the most comatose, just a huge commonsense way to save money when dealing with slow-suicides-by-alcohol. Oddly, they are actually showing signs of having a better recovery rate than the traditional "swear off alcohol to come in" housing programs.

Seattle was my home town for a long time. They are an argumentative bunch of second guessers with a fetish for new stadiums (the Kingdome was the best stadium of all time - OF ALL TIME - damnit all) but they do a lot right.

BullBearMS:orclover: Amos Quito: How long before the Feds send in the troops to "restore order"?

About an hour after the next Republican president gets elected. So probably 11-19 years at least.

Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multiagency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."

BullBearMS:orclover: Amos Quito: How long before the Feds send in the troops to "restore order"?

About an hour after the next Republican president gets elected. So probably 11-19 years at least.

Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multiagency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."

I remember a few years back when some friends and I were heading up to Canada to get some french fries with gravy when we got pulled over in Vermont. I figured we were busted, but all they did was stand there and make us smoke the whole bag.

Stone Meadow:Here in CA up too one ounce is "decriminalized" for any adult, and there is virtually no enforcement action. Spend $150 for a doctor visit and you can have, grow and consume all you want, since our Supremes ruled the cops/DAs can't set arbitrary limits.

$150 for a doctor? In SoCal its around $45~80 for the doctor's visit. Get coupons from the weekly papers (OC Weekly, LA Weekly, etc).

Amos Quito:Of course The True Believers will plug their ears and HUMMM!

Not many of those on the left, as the fight over Keystone is showing.

It's not an election year and Obama will never run again. The Left knows this and is giving him hell on multiple fronts. Note that here, in reality land, the Feds have resisted calls for them to put the hammer down on WA and OR.

Oh, and the non-partisan-assholes who really care about this are leaning on Congress to fixed the damn federal laws, not just Obama to chose not to enforce them (which is a piss poor bandaid approach that is of dubious Constitutionality). But you sound like a partisan asshole by your oh-so-clever implication that Obama is somehow responsible for the federal drug laws, or has the omniscient power to completely ignore all those he sees fit.

/Don't have a dog in the pot legalization fight personally//Am joining the fight against Obama rolling over for Keystone - something that is actually an executive decision, not blaming him for Congress's fark ups

Amos Quito:I was just about to link to that same Rolling Stone article.

That summary leaves out a couple of other things they have been doing lately.

We had the recent thread on the Obama administration digging up an obscure law meant for violent illegal drug cartels that they are now using to deny legal dispensaries the right to deduct any normal business expense. (payroll, rent, utilities, insurance, etc.)

They have also been threatening media outlets who run advertisements for these legal businesses.

ringersol:quietwalker: " It's gonna be amusing when the anti-tobacco trend washing over the country, resulting in banning smoking in public areas, bars, restaurants, etc, starts butting head with the nascent legal pot directives."

What's to butt heads over? Nothing about smoking regulations is limited to tobacco. And nothing about pot exempts smoking it from qualifying as smoking.So you can't smoke pot where you can't smoke anything else. It's obvious enough. And there's no real reason for anyone to think that it would be otherwise.

The amusing bit is the irony in the conflict: We're finally making it legal to smoke pot, while at the same time, we're making smoking illegal. Places (HOAs & townships) are already making it illegal to smoke at HOME. If both advocacy groups get their way, it'll be a net zero gain for the pro-pot crowd.

It's like making it legal to own a gun with a permit, but never giving out permits (*looks at chicago*)

I can't help you if you can't appreciate the way in which this balancing act came to be without anyone directly attempting to cause it. Sure it's just a confluence of unrelated events, but it's given rise to unanticipated symmetry that hasn't yet been acknowledged by those most involved with the issues. It's ... stimulating to consider?

SwiftFox:All marijuana exclusive dealers were read and given a copy of the Admonishment letter.

So, this is supposed to stop them from selling any more weed? Betcha the part about them getting let go and getting the weed back, and the hard drug dealers kept in jail sinks in better about not dealing anything else but cannabis.

Risk adjustment can have a high appeal. Don't get caught more than X often, and don't do other shiat we'll farking hang you for. Got it. In for a penny, in for a penny.

Surpheon:you sound like a partisan asshole by your oh-so-clever implication that Obama is somehow responsible for the federal drug laws, or has the omniscient power to completely ignore all those he sees fit.

Politicians aren't responsible for promising to do one thing, then actively doing the exact opposite?

"relentless in pursuing corporate criminals"

Apparently this is some strange definition where relentless means "won't even prosecute".

ShawnDoc:Stone Meadow: Here in CA up too one ounce is "decriminalized" for any adult, and there is virtually no enforcement action. Spend $150 for a doctor visit and you can have, grow and consume all you want, since our Supremes ruled the cops/DAs can't set arbitrary limits.

$150 for a doctor? In SoCal its around $45~80 for the doctor's visit. Get coupons from the weekly papers (OC Weekly, LA Weekly, etc).

Yeah, I totally pulled that number out of my ass. In truth I don't know how much it costs up here.

BullBearMS:Surpheon: you sound like a partisan asshole by your oh-so-clever implication that Obama is somehow responsible for the federal drug laws, or has the omniscient power to completely ignore all those he sees fit.

Politicians aren't responsible for promising to do one thing, then actively doing the exact opposite?

[dl.dropbox.com image 400x251]

"relentless in pursuing corporate criminals"

Apparently this is some strange definition where relentless means "won't even prosecute".

Did you post to the wrong thread? That has nothing to do with Congress being responsible for the laws banning marijuana use even for medical purposes. And you have to be some grade-A stupid to compare the complexity of the loophole-ridden financial laws with the simple idiocy of the federal marijuana classification.

Surpheon:quietwalker: It's gonna be amusing when the anti-tobacco trend washing over the country, resulting in banning smoking in public areas, bars, restaurants, etc, starts butting head with the nascent legal pot directives.

There isn't much conflict. Banning pot smoking just like tobacco smoking makes perfect sense considering the primary reason smoking bans are popular is because cigarettes smell like shiat. Secondary smoke health hazards blah blah blah - seriously, if you're not a smoker or living with one those things smell like ass. And in the extreme case where there is a secondary smoke health hazard (servers in very smoky bars getting a lungful for 8 hours a day), it applies double to pot (stoned waiters and waitresses are likely to be a bit less productive than non-stoned). Similar to pot to most people, so it's natural and logical that they'll be treated the same.